Sergio Marchionne has said that Ferrari's biggest problem in 2016 was falling behind the development curve.
Some think that the great Italian marque's year was disastrous, but Ferrari president Marchionne says that the team actually began 2016 well.
"We were much more competitive than where we left in 2015," he told Italian media at the team's end-of-year event in Daytona.
"It's not that we got worse, the others improved, but this is due to many reasons that we understand quite well.
"Our technical director James Allison had personal problems and left, and I think you have to give time to the guys who have been together only months.
"I have every confidence in Mattia Binotto but our problem was aerodynamics which we have had historically at Ferrari in recent years. Especially Red Bull this year did a fabulous job and left us behind."
Ferrari ended the 2016 constructors' championship with 398 points, 70 fewer than second-placed Red Bull.
